China has over taken Japan as the second largest foreign investor in Indonesia after Singapore in 2019 when it doubled its investments to US$4.7 billion from US$2.4 billion in the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, Chinese investments accounted for just over 20 percent of total foreign investments for the year, according to Indonesia’s National Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). Chinese investors also conducted feasibility studies faster than Japan (that take 3 or 4 years) in recent years.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the total investments (FDI and DDI) still grew by 2.1% to Rp 826.3 trillion, from Rp 809.6 trillion in the previous year, although FDI fell by 2.4 % from Rp 423.1 trillion in 2019 to Rp 412.8 trillion in 2020. The sharpest drops in FDI were from BVI, the Netherlands and Japan by 55%, 45.2% and 39.9% respectively.